The Glorious Ones, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's new musical about theatre history's major players, will be staged at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse in 2007-08, Variety reported.

Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty
Photo by Aubrey Reuben

The musical traces the lives of commedia dell'arte troupers in the 1600s, and is inspired by a novel by Francine Prose.

Graciela Daniele directed and choreographed the show's world premiere this spring at Pittsburgh Public Theater, and is expected to repeat her duties. She staged and choreographed Ahrens and Flaherty's Dessa Rose at the Newhouse, and has been a frequent A&F collaborator (Ragtime, for example). A&F's My Favorite Year and A Man of No Importance were also produced by Lincoln Center Theater, at the Broadway Beaumont and Off-Broadway Newhouse, respectively.

No casting has been announced for the LCT Glorious Ones, which is reported to launch Oct. 11 toward a Nov. 5 opening.

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Tony Award winners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty were in residence in western Pennsylvania this spring to help shepherd their new work at PPT (it opened April 27 at the O'Reilly Theater). Producers and other interested theatre folk booked tickets to the world premiere, which began previews at PPT — a theatre committed to new work as well as area premieres and classics — April 19. The run continued to May 20.

The Glorious Ones plunges into the world of commedia dell'arte and the theatre of the Italian Renaissance. The show is about theatre people — their love for each other, and their commitment to the tradition of going on.

The seven-actor musical has music by Pittsburgh native Flaherty and book and lyrics by Ahrens.

Of the 17th-century Italian-set show, Flaherty previously told Playbill.com, "It is both of a time and timeless in its themes. The struggles the characters go through are the same struggles every actor and writer I know goes through today. That's what attracted me thematically."

Does the time and place prompt Flaherty to flirt with different musical flavors?

Flaherty said, "The score is highly romantic and lyrical, reaching for the stars, and at the same time (since the show is about street theatre) very earthy and bawdy. It has extreme romanticism and extremely rude humor side by side. And it's very Italian. It is probably my most 'European' score and the orchestrations by Michael Starobin are stunning."

Ahrens told Playbill.com, "Stephen has an uncanny knack for taking a particular period or place's 'sound' and making it theatrical and accessible and 'his.' He's done it on all our shows, which are all set in different times and places and very diverse in that regard."

What did the writers learn in previews in Pittsburgh?

"That Pittsburgh audiences really listen and that every word and gesture counts," Flaherty said. "We've learned a lot about proportion as well. We've also found that the piece is really getting audiences laughing although it is also incredibly moving, sometimes simultaneously."

The idea of actors' art being ephemeral is central to the story, reflecting the passing nature of human life. Did that speak to the writers?

"Absolutely," Flaherty said. "As much as I try and hang onto our opening night I know it will be just a memory the next day. And it will really be a special evening since it is the first time I've ever premiered a new work in my hometown of Pittsburgh. The whole neighborhood will be there! So I intend to really try and be in the moment, to savor it."

Ahrens added, "When my father passed away, it fell to me to dispose of a great deal of his work — a lifetime of photographs, some of which were professional masterpieces, but many of which were unsalvageable. It was like getting rid of a part of him that he'd left behind. The themes of this show resonate with anyone who's tried to hold onto the past or who's wanted to leave something of worth behind or who has simply wanted to be remembered when they go. It's not just actors, it's all of us. I'm only just realizing what it means to me — it comes from a very personal place."

How did the writers discover the novel?

"A friend of mine, Margaret Pine — a wonderful composer who's married to the actor Larry Pine — introduced me to the novel," Ahrens said. "It seemed to me, when I read it, that there were unbelievable moments for songs — both offstage and on — to illuminate the lives and hearts of these 'creatures of the stage.'"

What attracted Ahrens to it? "Masks, codpieces, slapsticks, sex, dirty jokes, pure silliness — who wouldn't be attracted to that sort of comic theatrical world?," she said. "And I was really ready to write a comedy again. And although the story is set in the early 1600s, it spirals forward in a non-linear way to a place that makes it completely contemporary — wait and see."

Is it a "book" musical, or largely sung?

"I would say the music and lyrics drive the show," Flaherty said. "There is almost a constant flow of music."

Ahrens explained, "As Peter Stone used to say, book is structure, so I guess everything is a book musical in that sense. This show does have spoken scenes, but for the most part it's a series of self-contained songs, flowing one after another, leading us through the story and into the hearts, minds and machinations of the characters."

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Ahrens and Flaherty's songs have transported audiences to a 1950s TV studio, an island in the Antilles, the Civil War South, ragtime-era Manhattan and the streets of Dublin. With their new show, they take us right to the heart of theatre history. The writers won the Best Score Tony Award for Ragtime and also penned songs for Dessa Rose (set in the Old South), A Man of No Importance (set in Dublin), My Favorite Year (set in the world of TV comedy) and Once on This Island (set on an island billed as "the jewel of the Antilles"), as well as Lucky Stiff (set in England and Monte Carlo).